Problems with Mens Health as they Grow Older

These days many men suffer from various ailments as they grow older.

An example is high blood pressure which does affect quite a high percentage of the adult population.

In the United States of America about 75 million adults suffer from high blood pressure.

This means that about a third of the adult population have this problem.

In England it affects 31% of Males  and 26% of Females.

Overall the ratio is the same as in America at one in three of adults.

Rather concerning is that about 50% are either not diagnosed or having treatment.

In England it is believed  that there are in excess of 5 million adults that are undiagnosed and therefore without treatment.

High levels of cholesterol is a good example of another common health problem which is normally quite easy to treat.

The UK Government believes that healthy adults should aim to have a cholesterol level of less than five. In fact the average level in the United Kingdom is 5.7 and approximately 60% of adults have a level in excess of 5.

Another common male problem is very common problem of erectile dysfunction. This can occur for  many reasons.  Very often  because of work pressure or stress. Also it can be more common as one grows older.

Like the high levels of blood pressure or cholesterol this problem  can usually be resolved with out too much difficulty.

There is a product known as Sildamax which can help relieve the symptoms of erectile dysfunction,

Sildamax contains the ingredient sildenafil citrate which is the main ingredient in other similar solutions.

This is available from Sildamax-online.com

Easy Share Trading

Easy Share Trading using Spread Betting Accounts and CFDs Contracts for Difference. Spread Betting accounts and CFDs allow you to use leverage so a deposit of say £500 could allow you to trade shares with a value of say £5,000. Losses can exceed deposits so you must use a stop loss. You can get more information on share trading at this site Easy Share Trading

Stealth Taxes in the UK

Millions of people in the UK will be hit by the tax changes that will come into effect from this month April 2010.

These increases were set up some time ago so nearly all of them will have been forgotten by the ordinary working man.This, of course, is why they are often known as stealth taxes.

They get introduced a year in advance of when they actually come into effect. So when they first announced people tend to ignore them as at that time they have no actual impact.

This has been a feature of Gordon Brown's Chancellorship from his first budget way back in 1997 and is continuing with the current Chancellor Alistair Darling.Darling in his last years budget.

Gordon Brown is the finacial genuis wholost the UK more than £13 Billion selling the Gold reserves at some US$ 220 an ounce compared to nearly US $ 2,000 at its peak.

For example last year he announced that fuel duty would rise by 1p a litre in real terms between 2010 to 2013 and that means 1p plus inflation as measured by the retail price index.

This will come into effect on aptly 1st April 2010 (April fools day). The increase will be geared to the projected inflation figure for the third quarter of this year which will be released with the budget on 24th March and some thing in the order of 3p a litre is anticipated. However in the budget on 24th March 2010 he said that the increase would be spread over the year. That is one third on April 1st and one third in October and one third in January 2010.

In his 2008 budget Darling also introduced a one off tax increase in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on all new cars that are registered after 1st April 2010 (again April fools day) this tax is commonly referred to as "Showroom Tax". Like all Stealth taxes this has not been picked up much by the press and many car dealers report that clients are generally unaware of it.

The way that this works is that people buying a new car with the 10 number plate will face quite a significant tax increase which could amount to £1,000 in some cases.Some examples of the show room tax are:Audi A4 £125 BMW 5 Series £550 Mazda R8 £950The purpose of the tax is to apply a higher tax to high emission vehicles with a higher initial rate of VED in the first year.

However thousands of ordinary working class people with medium sized cars will also be hit with a tax amounting to hundreds of pounds.For example somebody buying a Honda 2.0 IVTEC which falls in band J will be hit with a first year duty of £425 compared with the current cost of £215.Then we have stealth taxes on ordinary peoples pensions.

From April 6th 2010 the Government will dramatically reduce the pension benefits for millions of workers in what is being called yet a further stealth raid on peoples retirement funds. There are more than 6 million people who earn more than £31,800 per annum who are building a smaller state second pension. This is known as a S2P and it is designed to provide a top up to the basic state pension and was previously called serps.

The government have frozen the higher earnings limit for eligibility for the S2P at £40,040 last April and previously it had increased year on year ,as you expect it to, and at the same time the rate at which S2P will build up halves from 20% to 10% above £31,800.It has been widely reported that the revenue generated by stealth taxes and by allowances and tax thresholds which are frozen, with no inflation linked increases (as one would naturally of course expect) are increasing dramatically.

Stealth Taxes have actually increased from £69 billion in 1997 when Gordon Brown became the UK Chancellor to a staggering £125 billion in 2010 an increase of nearly 80%.

Gordon Brown's government slogan is "A future fair for all" .

Many people think that he is talking about a fun fair. To b stampe frank what he knows about being fair could be printed on a postage stamp.

He has harmed pensions by making it such that they could not relaim the advance corporation tax on their income. At a stroke he reduced their income and limited the future growth of ordinary working peoples pensions dramitically. The losses are estimated to be in excess of £350 billion and clearly his decision has taken more money from pensions than the late Robert Maxwell ever did. The reason for this is that pensions grow by reinvesting their income so as to get compound growth on their funds. Brown struck his less than prudent tax cut in 1997 so his negative effect has been in force for 13 years. But not only as he made the income much less than it should be the effect of less incopme in the pension finds meant that the stock martket did not grow as fast as could.

Recently he has admitted that the figures he gave before the Chilcott enquiry were incorrect and the statistics he provided on immigration recently were severly incorrect.

With ever increasing taxes it is even more imortant that you cheack that you are not due a refund under the PAYE system.

To increase your wealth in a tax free way  you should consider learning about spread betting. This allows you to trade the stock markets and it is completely tax free, Something to think about.

For more information go to Easy Share Trading

Advantages in an Enhanced Pension Annuity

People who are coming up to their retirement have to become much more careful in their choice of pension products as rates on normal annuities continue to fall in the current economic downturn.

This is due to two main reasons the first that Interest rates are at historic lows and second that retired people are living for much longer. These two combined factors are resulting in a large increase in demand for enhanced life annuities which pay increased annuities to those who for example, smoke, are over weight, or have some other medical condition that may impair their life expectancy.

It has been estimated that sales of enhanced annuities are continuing to increase by more than 20% on a year on year basis and that they currently account for some 17% of the current market share.

It is not surprising that those who are nearing retirement are having to maximise the return on their pension investments because in 1997 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown did away with the ability of pension finds to reclaim the tax paid on their investment income from stock exchange investments.

It has been estimated by independent research that Gordon Brown's notorious "pension stealth tax" reduced the value of retirement funds by at least £100 billion.This mindboggling fogure is more than twice as much as the combined pension deficits of the country's 350 biggest companies.

The total current and future impact of Mr Brown's move — known technically as the abolition of Advanced Corporation Tax (ACT) relief — has been calculated by Terry Arthur, a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, in a paper written for that professional body. Mr Arthur has said: "What happened in 1997 represented an enormous and ongoing raid on the assets of UK company pension schemes. My research shows it would be very hard to justify an impact of less than £100 billion — and even £150 billion may still be a conservative estimate."

In addition there is the same effect to those with personal pensions in that those funds were also subjected to the same stealth tax. This has a further effect in the pension finds have considerably much less income to re-invest in the stock market so that both income and capital growth was much reduced by Gordon Brown's stealth tax.

The effect of all of this has been to see the once generous company pension schemes being scaled back and at the same time those with personal pension funds have been hit.

Also Annuity rates have continued to fall and have been on a long term decline both due to ever increasing life expectancy and falling interest rates.

In addition the policy of quantitative easing has had the effect to push gilt yields to historical low yields which further reduces annuity rates.

As enhanced annuities continue to increase in their popularity there is I believe a knock on effect on the normal annuity market where rates of income offered to those in good health are continuing to fall.

You can even qualify for an enhanced annuity simply based on your post code as actuarial statistics show that those living in the country can have a far higher life expectancy than those living in inner cities.

These are some of the key pointers to consider as to whether you might qualify for an enhanced annuity.

Do you have any relevant medical history if so then you should make this known to your proposed annuity provider to see if you can qualify for an enhanced annuity.

How healthy is your life style? You need to advise your proposed annuity provider if you are over weight, if you smoke ,if you drink and do you have high blood pressure are just some of the points to consider.

Those who are retiring and do not qualify for an increased annuity on health reasons are having to face the fact that the average expectation of life is continuing to increase.

Naturally you would expect with the ever increasing increases in life expectancy that those who are healthy will see annuity rates continue to fall at a ever greater rate.

Therefore it is essential to check to see if you qualify for an enhanced annuity.

What ever you do you must not approach retirement with out considering as to whether you may be able to claim any enhanced benefit as just a small percentage increase could prove to be very valuable over a number of years.

Lastly, as with any major investment purchase, you must be prepared to shop around and not necessarily accept the first quote from your existing pension provider always be prepaid to see what is available in the open market.

The Author writes many articles on reclaiming Income Tax in the UK and on investing for further information one of his web sites is at Learning to Share Trade




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Pension Planning

When planning for the future and by that I mean ones retirement the sooner you can start planning and making provision for the future the better.I say this as time passes by very quickly and before you know it another ten years will have passed.

There are many ways that one can make provide for ones retirement and good advice could be to spread your eggs and not put them all in one basket.Also personal priorities such as getting on the property ladder or starting a family are items that will probably be given a far higher priority than pension planning.

Currently in the UK the state retirement age is 60 years for woman and 65 for men but these ages are beginning to rise.Over a phased time these retirement ages will rise to 65 for women.

As I have said above the State Pension age is 65 for men born before 6 April 1959. For women who were born on or before 5 April 1950, the UK State Pension age is 60.The State Pension age for women born on or after 6 April 1950 will increase gradually to 65 between 2010 and 2020.From 6 April 2020 the UK State Pension age will be 65 for both men and women.

Between 2024 and 2046 the UK State Pension age will rise for both men and women. The increase will be gradual, happening over two years every decade.

The changes mean that the UK te Pension age for men and women will increase from 65 to 66 between April 2024 and April 2026.Then ten years later between April 2034 and April 2036 the pension age for men and women will increase from 66 to 67.

Then in a further ten years between April 2044 and April 2046 the UK State Pension age for men and women will increase from 67 to 68.So these changes, alone, is a very good reason to consider making your own private pension arrangements to complement what you will get from the state pension.My experience is that the sooner you can start a pension plan with even a small nominal sum the better as it gets you into the idea of putting some money aside on a regular basis.Also the longer that ones contributions are invested the better the investment return will be.

This is simply because the longer the funds are invested they tend to grow more exponentially with a far greater rateurn.One reason for making your own private pension provision is simply that the Government will add 20% of your contribution if you are basic tax payer and 40% if you are a higher rate tax payer. The catch of course is that when you get to draw your pension that income is taxable. However you can usually draw a tax free lump sum of 25% of the fund value which can be very useful.Pension plans can provide a good degree of flexibility in planning for the future. For example some body may want to retire early perhaps a few years before the date that one would qualify for the state pension or indeed the reverse one may be working past the state retirement age and want to defer taking your personal pension for that very reason.

Personal pension plans do provide this kind of choice and flexibility.Modern thinking is that pension funds can now be invested in a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) which means that the plan holder is able to choose the investment funds and this gives the plan holder a great choice in investment.

Using a personal pension plan can mean that you will be entitled to a paye refund.

With personal pension plans they can be invested in a SIPP. A self invested pension plan.

Other ideas for planning ones retirement could be to purchase  buy to let property and perhaps building a stock market portfolio which could  be invested in a tax free way in an ISA.

You could also invest in spread betting or CFDs using a leveraged product for Investing and there are many providers in the market that offer this.

For more information on Spread Betting and trading on the markets please go to Easy Share Trading 

Are you due a PAYE Reclaim

Why is it that so many people are due a UK Tax refund?

One of the reasons is that a select committe report has said that it is 'deeply troubled' by HMRC.

HMRC is Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to give them their full name.

HMRC were severely criticised by this parliamentary report for:-

Poor and Bad Organisation

Lack of Performance

Presiding over a disengaged work force

The report noted that Sir Gus O'Donnell the cabinet secretary had said that "HMRC faces a huge transformation challenge which will take both time and leader ship attention in particular to rebuild staff confidence in HMRC's leadership and inspire staff to be a part of HMRC's future".

Its seems just so amazing that after some 13 years of the current government and the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the Chancellor of the exchequer for some 11 years that it is only now that they seemto be getting to grip with what is a very poorly managed organisation.

The committee noted the "relatively new management team" which I am sure we can all understand as it does take time to get ones feet under the table so as to speak.That said however the committee added that they were "deeply troubled by the apparent absence of any detailed plan to ameliorate the situation".

They asked that HMRC bosses to "redouble their efforts to re-engage with their work force".

The report was also critical that HMRC did not have any proper criteria in order to be able to judge its performance.

They were also critical of HMRC for "lack of transparency " in specific areas that had been identified for improvement.

The MPs stated "we urge HMRC to provide more data in the future".On Monday 8th March 2010 HMRC stated "HMRC senior managers are addressing the causes of low morale. One of the reasons for low morale is that they wish to cut costs and presumably staff in their call centres by 30% by the year 2012.

The Department's new business plan does include a key objective to improve staff commitment.

From a practical and personal point of view I have to say that none of this surprises me as they seem to make so many elementary mistakes or it might be that they fail to educate and train their staff properly.

Also, of course, they need to educate those that need information from them who are in many ways their clients. For example both employers who operate PAYE and employees who are taxed on PAYE.

I say this as quite often employees can pay too much tax and can be taxed on an incorrect tax code.The reason why this happens is that the PAYE system works well for many people but it struggles with anything that is slightly out of the ordinary.

A good example of this could be a student who works part way through the year for a few months only. Often they can be taxed on a month one basis which means that the free pay tax allowances are not allowed to be calculated on a cumulative basis which usually means if some one does not work a full tax year they are very probably due a tax refund.

Another common example is that of some one who leaves their job to go abroad part way through a tax year. Again they would very probably be due an income tax refund as they would not have been able to use up their annual tax free allowance.

The same thing can happen in reverse when people return to the UK perhaps from working or travelling abroad.. If they start part way through a tax year and they are taxed on a month 1 basis as is often the case as they would not have a form P45 from a previous employer then again they would very probably be due an Income Tax Reclaim.

The Author writes many articles on reclaiming Income Tax in the UK and for further information one of his web sites is at UK Paye Reclaim

Are you Employed or Self Employed

How do you establish if you are Self employed or an employee for UK income tax purposes.

There is no actual or legal definition of what employment or self-employment is as it is based on previous judgments which are commonly known as 'case law'.

There are some key points to take into account in deciding the status of an individual for Income Tax purposes in the

UK. Self employed business owners have many key distinguishing pointers and for example self employed persons are able to :-

Manage and operate their own business taking all the required key decisions.

Take full responsibility for the success or failure of their business.

Decide how, when and where they carry out their work.

Hire other persons to do the work that is required the cost of which is borne by them.

Purchase and provide the plant, equipment,fixtures and  fittings and motor vehicles that are used to carry out the work

They are,of course, free to take holidays and time off when they want to.

Usually they will have more than one client or customer at the same time. This is not always the case as some trades such as motor cycle courier are treated as self employed but may only be providng services for one courier service on a subcontract basis. I will explain this in more detail later in this article.

Dealing with employees these will usually:-

Work for one employer at a time who is in charge of the work that is done by the employee. The employee how ever could have two or more employments perhaps a day job and a week end job.

They are directed by their employer as to how they should carry out their duties and as to when and where they perform the work.

They will be required to work a pre set amount of hours each and every week.

They will qualify for paid holidays but can only take these holidays in line with their terms of employment as regards their length and timing.

They will benefit from being remunerated at the same fixed amount depending on the hours that are actually worked, and get paid for working overtime.

Casual work or work that is of a part-time nature can still be classed as either employed or self-employed depending on the facts. The fact that it is casual or part time has nothing to do with their employment status.

Self employed motor cycle courriers despite possiby only provding services for one courier company they are generaly treated as self employed because of how they work. They have no guarantee of work and are dependent on work being allocated to them. So if there is no work they do not get paid and then they must be classed as self employed. They supply their own Motor Cycles and pay for their own fuel and running costs.

It is,of course, also possible to be both self-employed and in self employment simultaneously in that one could be working for an employer during the day and involved in running your own self employed business at the week ends or in the evenings.

Each contract whether it be one of service or of employment has to be considered independently on its merits. As mentioned it is possible that one could be both self-employed under a contract of service and be an employee under a contract or employment.

If you are not sure you should take independent advice from an Accountant or somebody who specialises in this field. My experience is that if you go to the tax office they do not have much real knowledge and always tend to suggest that one is an amployee. That way they keep their own jobs and collect more tax for the Govenrment.

Whether one is an employee or self-employed depends simply on the facts of the actual working arrangements and the terms and conditions contained in the contract as these factors all need to be considered at the same time.

If you are self employed then you will be responsible for your own tax and National Insurance contributions. You will need to advise HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by registering with them within 3 months of commencing employment. It is possible to download a registration form from the HMRC web site or you can can register by making a call to the Newly Self-employed Helpline on 0845 915 4515 which is open 8.00 am to 8.00 pm Monday to Friday and 8.00 am to 5.00 pm Saturday and Sunday.

You will also need to file a Self Assessment tax return with in the required time limits and make payments as required for both National Insurance and Income Tax.

If you are employed then the burden for actually deducting and paying your tax and National Insurance contributions will fall on your employer. This will be dealt with by under the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system. With this system you need to make sure that you have been given the correct code number and are not on an emergency or week 1 basis. If you are,then quite oftenly, you are taxed either on a week 1 code or on emergency tax which means that you will often be over taxed and usually will be due a tax refund at the end of the the tax year.

The Author writes many articles on reclaiming Income Tax in the UK and on investing in Stocks and shares  for further information one of his web sites is at Easy Share Trading